


let he who is without sin throw the first stone

by RaineyDay



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [19]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Anger, Betrayal, Dysfunctional Family, Family Feels, Forgiveness, Gen, Lucretia Positive, Mentioned The Director | Lucretia, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:22:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29683212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaineyDay/pseuds/RaineyDay
Summary: Febuwhump day 24: memory lossA necessary confrontation about a necessary betrayal, begun by an outsider to the situation.
Relationships: Barry Bluejeans & Magnus Burnsides & Davenport & Merle Highchurch & Lucretia & Lup & Taako
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2138502
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	let he who is without sin throw the first stone

**Author's Note:**

> This doesn't follow the prompt as much as some of my other fics have this month, primarily it refers to the canon memory situation. It is extremely Lucretia defense, and your mileage may vary, so know that going in. This comes from some frustration about the fact that a lot of people don’t seem to want to talk about the fact that the rest of IPRE crew also had a messed up plan that they thought was right that ended up hurting people and not working... basically the same thing some people crucify Lucretia over, and I wanted to explore that in writing.

June was glad to have been invited to the party, truly. She was fond of the Birds, and she'd let go of the anger she felt over finding out that their town 'saviors' had in fact been the ones to doom her to the fate of the Chalice for so long.

She enjoyed spending time with the Birds, and sought out opportunities for it when they arose.

She hadn't spent time with all seven of the Birds in the same room since the Day of Story and Song though. And now that she was here, she was finding out something that was rather off-putting.

It seemed that there was still quite a bit of tension between Madame Lucretia and the rest of the Birds.

June had caught wind of that possibility from things she'd hear from or around the other Birds, but never had it been so obvious as it was here and now, with them all together.

There were a number of Bureau members and other natives to this plane at the party, but none of them seemed willing to say anything about the situation. June wasn't sure if that was because they had just gotten used to it, spending more time around the Birds than she, or if they just didn't feel like bothering, but it was clear that they weren't going to address it.

Well. She may have a strange relationship with age, but she was, technically a teenager. And wasn't it a teenager's prerogative to start a perhaps-poorly-planned argument no one else was willing to start?

She saw Lucretia standing with the other Birds, before she suddenly turned and walked out of the room. The Birds seemed to be arguing amongst themselves, and June was certain that one of them had said something to upset Lucretia and the rest were wondering if it had been too harsh or not.

Now, June understood that the family members had felt betrayed by what Lucretia did, and she tried not to judge, really, or stick her nose into business that wasn't hers, but she couldn't help but feel a sudden surge of anger at the sight.

She slammed her hands down on the table in front of her, standing up to address the Birds.

"You know, I try not to judge, friends, but what the hell was that?" she demanded, pointing to the door that Lucretia had fled out of.

"None of your business," Taako sneered, but they all knew him well enough to see the defensiveness in his posture. Lucretia had written about it extensively in the journals.

June would normally feel a touch kinder to him in response to that- they all loved the Birds enough to understand his idiosyncrasies, but she was still too angry for that.

"You haven't forgiven her, have you? Have any of you?" June shouted.

She was starting to get the attention of other people in the crowd, but she didn't care. This needed to be said.

"She betrayed us. She hurt us- we have a right to not forgive her ever! She's lucky we let her spend time with us at all!" Taako shouted back.

Magnus put a hand on Taako's arm, calming him slightly.

"June," Magnus said, looking pained. "I forgive her. Merle forgives her. Lup forgives her. I think the rest of them will too. But it takes time to get over some things, ya know?"

"Oh, I know." June kept her voice cold, staring them down, and she saw Magnus wince at the phrasing. She would apologize to him later. "I understand forgiveness and time very well. And I wouldn't normally say something like this- would give you time to work it out- but you clearly still want her in your lives, or you wouldn't spend time with her, and what you're doing now is just deepening the wounds in all of you. You need to get your shit together or stop hurting her to make yourselves feel better."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Davenport said, slowly, carefully. "You've been through a lot, and I respect that, but you only know what you heard in the Story. You didn't live it."

"No, I didn't live through what you lived through," June began, knowing she had to be careful not to say something that she would regret. She thought about her next words very carefully before she started to say them. "But I did live through what you forced upon this world."

She saw Magnus flinch again, and he wasn't the only one. The other Birds did as well, to a one, and a number of the Faerun natives did the same.

There was an unspoken agreement between the Faerun natives not to say anything about the Relics that the Birds had created. They had saved the world. They regretted the hurt they had caused.

But June was starting to think that their silence had gone on too long. Someone needed to remind them.

"I'm grateful to what y'all did for us. But before you did it, you used our plane as a testing ground for a plan that you weren't sure would even work. You were responsible for atrocities the likes of which our world had never seen before. And you had no right to do that to us. Not even to save everyone."

"June..." several people murmured for her to stop speaking, reaching out as if to comfort or confront her.

"No! I am speaking!" June shouted, and she stood up on the table to stop them from blocking her from view of the Birds.

"And did it work? Madame Lucretia didn't get any of the Relics other than her own back for a decade! Some of the Relics were in continuous use or close to it that whole time, and wasn't that your plan? To keep the Light separate, keep it being wanted and used?" It was a rhetorical question, but she needed to say it. "And did it stop the Hunger? Did it help at all? Or did it just make them desperate and angry?"

"It helped!" Merle insisted.

"Why are you saying all this?" Lup demanded, face and voice devastated, and June felt bad, but she couldn't stop. "You just want to hurt us because we haven't all forgiven her yet?"

"I'm saying all this because I think you've gotten a little cocky. You've forgotten just what it is you did before Madame Lucretia did what she did," June said, looking them each in the eye as she spoke.

"Are you fucking saying we deserved that?" Taako demanded, stalking forward towards her.

June wasn't intimidated by him.

"No," she said, watching him with a detached haughtiness that she hadn't felt since she was combined with the Chalice. "I'm saying you deserved worse."

She let that sink in for a minute, watched Taako's face go slack as if she'd slapped him, then angry again. She spoke again before he could.

"You did something horrible. Something that you had no right to do. Something that hurt people. Because you thought you knew what was best for everyone. And your plan didn't even work out how you wanted it to. Sound familiar?" she cocked her head to the side, to the door that Lucretia had left from.

"You did something that was wrong and unjust. And you had to be stopped. Some people might suggest that you oughta consider yourselves lucky that you had a friend to stop you, who would do it as kindly and lovingly as possible. Because if it had been up to your victims? If you hadn't saved everyone first? We might not have been nearly so merciful."

She took a breath, trying to calm herself. She wanted to make them understand, not to hurt them. The realization might hurt a little, but she was really trying not to do any worse than she needed to.

"I know that you meant well. I know that you didn't think you had any other options at your disposal. I know you and I love you. And so I can forgive you for the pain you have inflicted on me and on my world. On everyone I love," June said, and her face turned pleading, almost apologetic. She hoped that they wouldn't hate her after this. "But I find it very disturbing that you aren't willing to pay that forward. Especially when I can tell that you still love her. Still want her in your lives. You suffered because of what she did, I know. But so did she, for your benefit. And this refusal to forgive her for this, this refusal to even acknowledge that your plan and hers were motivated by the same things- all it does is hurt all of you. And it hurts us to watch it happen."

June felt the anger she held slowly dissipate, and she suddenly felt foolish for her dramatics. She stepped down off the table, walking forward through the now silent crowd around her, past the Birds, all standing very still, strange, conflicted expressions passing over their faces as her words sunk in.

She stopped in front of Magnus, dipping her head a little and reaching out for a hug, if he was willing.

He pulled her in, but didn't say anything.

"I'm sorry if what I said hurt you. I wish I could have said it in a way that didn't," she said, speaking to Magnus primarily, but making sure that her voice was clear and loud enough for them all to hear.

The hug seemed to have broken the standoff.

"Forgot how smart you are," Magnus whispered into her hair. "And how much you care."

When she pulled out of the hug, she saw that Taako was running off somewhere, probably to lick his wounds without lashing out at anyone. Seemed like Kravitz intended to follow though, so she wasn't too worried.

The rest of the Birds, aside from Magnus above her, were moving towards a corner of the room, huddled together and speaking softly enough that she wondered if they'd cast some sort of spell to stop anyone else from hearing them.

"Should I leave?" June asked, pulling out of the hug. "Give everybody some time to calm down?"

"You don't have to do that!" Magnus insisted, then his expression twisted a little. "Maybe try to stay away a little bit though. It's- it might take a second for people to stop feeling angry and defensive."

"So, wait to apologize to the rest of them for like, a week? Two?" June asked, half-joking and smiling to show it.

"Week for Dav, Lup, and Barry, two weeks for Taako," Magnus said, nodding decisively and grinning widely back at her. "I think Merle's already past it."

"And you?" June asked. "How do you feel?"

"I don't know," Magnus admitted. "But I think you were right that we had to hear that. Maybe you could have waited to not be at a party, but who am I to criticize rushing into something?" His laugh was happy, if a little rueful.

Magnus glanced back to where the other Birds were speaking and grimaced. "I should probably go talk to them. We're, uh, gonna have to have a _long_ family meeting after this."

"Go on," June said. "Give them my love."

"I will!" Magnus assured, before he turned and jogged off to the others.

June walked back to her seat, grabbing her cup of water and moving to lean against the wall. She was sure that everyone was watching her, and it was off-putting. There were enough people that were strangers to her that she felt uncomfortable with the attention.

She was not all that surprised when someone came up to talk to her, all things considered. It was the kid, Angus McDonald, and she was really unsure how he would react to this. He saw the Birds as family, if she understood the situation right. Being raised by Taako and Kravitz, she thought, with a lot of help and input from the rest of them. So this could really go a lot of different ways.

"What's your favorite candy? I'm buying you _so_ much of it. You seem like you need it," Angus said in greeting.

"Uh-" June laughed, "-anything chocolate, really."

Angus actually wrote that down, and June laughed again.

"They've been very frustrating lately," Angus sighed, leaning against the wall next to her. "I didn't want to say anything, because I love them and I know that these things take time, but you brought up some really good points. They won't admit it easily, so I will."

"I don't know if I did anything all that useful really," June said, letting a tinge of regret color her voice. "I should have been nicer about it."

"Nice hasn't been getting us anywhere. Sometimes you just have to force your way through!" Angus insisted.

"I hope you're right," June said, softly, watching the Birds speak, wishing she had thought about this more before speaking. But maybe her message would still get through, regardless of the tone.

-

About a week after June got back to Refuge after the party, she found a big pile of chocolate on her desk, and a letter with a drawing from Angus. The drawing featured all seven Birds, along with Kravitz and Angus himself, sitting around a table playing some kind of game. It was childish and inexperienced and June already knew she'd treasure it forever.

She settled in to read the letter that came with it, happy and comfortable for the first time in a week. Looks like she'd been forgiven.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this confrontation from June because I felt like it worked from a lot of angles; 1) she doesn't know the Birds as well, and therefore I think she would be more of an outsider, 2) she's a direct victim of the Birds' Relic plan, and I wanted to explore her experiences under that and 3) as the Temporal Chalice, she was damn harsh on the boys about Phadolin! Like the moment where she shows them the burning of the town after they refuse to go back _haunts_ me, so I feel like this is in character, from what little we know about her character.


End file.
